Mutombo: Zaire’s Basketball Ambassador

Yes, things do look different from where Dikembe Mutombo stands, some 7 feet, 3 inches (at least) in the air and several thousand miles from his home in Zaire.

The rim looks lower, the crowds more daunting and the language more complicated, and in this case, one player’s perspective doesn’t stop until it has touched everything within its reach. Blocked shots are only the beginning.

Mutombo, quite innocently, has pushed open the door to the most insular program in the land and let just a crack of light pass through. This is no ordinary Hoya, this 21-year-old who speaks five languages (not including several African dialects) and who without so much as a shred of effort resists the gray-shirted, stonefaced stereotype that has existed since Patrick Ewing delivered his first scowl. This is an ambassador.

“His entire personal presentation, the way he speaks, the way he acts, is not in any way what you would expect from a basketball player,” said Betsy McCormick, academic counselor in Georgetown’s school of language and linguistics. “I think he connects with the students here, personally, as much as they see him as a symbol for the basketball team. He gives them something back for supporting him.”

Said Mutombo, “All of the students, they like me a lot. My teachers, they all like me a lot, too.”

Students who know him well address Mutombo by the cuddly nickname “Deekums.” His teammates, meaning no disrespect, call him, simply “Mutombo,” as much because it falls rhythmically into line with “Alonzo.” That would be Alonzo Mourning, the Hoyas’ 6-10 sophomore forward, who plays alongside Mutombo after playing in front of him a year ago, when Rejection Row, in honor of their 244 blocked shots, was christened at the Capital Centre.

What Mutombo has brought to Georgetown is an engaging and fascinating mix of the naive and the learned. As much as he was mystified by opponents woofing at him (“I think I am not too comfortable with this stuff,” he said), he is on solid ground where other college athletes, anywhere, are not.

“We were sitting at dinner before we played Villanova,” said Georgetown Coach John Thompson. “It was myself and Alonzo, one of the managers and Dikembe. We were talking about some recent developments in Africa. Now, there’s no way we would have been talking about that if Dikembe hadn’t been sitting there.”

The story of his immigration is no less fascinating than you would expect. Consider: Mutombo didn’t play basketball until he was 16 years old and a student at Institute Boboto in Kinsasha, Zaire. His older brother, Ilo, was the best player in the country, but less than a year after Dikembe began playing, that changed.

Herman Henning, a former Chicago high school coach working for the U.S. Information Agency in Africa, told Thompson about Mutombo. Thompson hears all the time about the next Akeem Olajuwon. He gets photographs of young kids hanging from the rim, but the pictures never show their feet, which are often on a stepladder. Thompson was able to determine two things: “That this kid was big and mobile.” Which was enough to take a shot.

Mutombo arrived in the fall of 1987 and was introduced to Thompson 20 minutes after hitting the runway. He was duly intimidated by his future coach, who stands 6-10 and weighs considerably more than Mutombo’s 235 pounds. “I saw him and I thought ‘Oh no, this guy is going to be my teammate,’ ” Mutombo said. “Then I heard he would be the coach. It was scary, very scary, to have a coach so big like that.”

Thompson relished the role, telling Mutombo that if he hadn’t been all of 7-2, he was going to send him home. “I remind him of that all the time,” Thompson said. “He still doesn’t know if I was kidding. I like it that way.” Lest Thompson be cast as a tyrant, consider that where Mutombo is concerned, the coach betrays a genuine softness. It has been necessary to grind Mutombo in practice, but in sum, Thompson said, “A kid like this, he’s got the whole package, intellectually, athletically.”

Mutombo leads the Big East with four blocks a game and is fifth with 8.9 rebounds. “He’s big, and I mean big,” said Syracuse’s Derrick Coleman. “But the thing is, he can run the floor, too. He gets up and down. You have to play him, and with him and Alonzo both in there, it’s just tough to get anything off.”

The offensive package is less refined. Mutombo is slowly transforming himself from a shot-blocking curiosity into a weapon, but still averages only 6.8 points, up from 3.9 a year ago. “I think I’m working very hard to improve my offense,” Mutombo said. “I know I have a long way to go.”

There is always room in the NBA for a very tall man with athletic skills, so his future is virtually assured. Equal time, however, is given to the matters of adaptation and homesickness, each of which find a place in Mutombo’s 15-hour days. “The cultural gaps have been hard for him to bridge,” McCormick said.

Though his older brother plays at Southern Indiana and his younger brother is playing for a high school in Philadelphia, Mutombo is still essentially alone. “I miss my family very much,” he said. One older brother died last year, and Mutombo could not return home for the funeral. And of course, he is a constant source for the inquisitiveness of others. “People are so curious about me, the way I speak so many languages and where I come from,” Mutombo said. But then, “I like it, you know. I’m not afraid of people asking about me.”